I live in CA and am looking for some out-of-state property.
I am currently looking for mostly SFH around FL, especially around Tampa,St. Petersburg, Clearwater and Sarasota areas.
The numbers seems to make sense overall, my biggest concern is tenant management. Any idea how is the tenant issue and vacancy rate there? Does it make sense to hire management company to do all the maintenance job?
I would definitely put it under management unless your goal is to become experienced in out of state property management. It's not that hard but you would have to commit to being available to handle issues and lease ups between tenants. You can hire a PM just for lease ups but since that's the most expensive part, I would keep them for everything.
As far as vacancy rates in the Tampa, St Petersburg / Clearwater area, we seem to be dong well overall. For those of us that screen well, everybody seems to be paying on time and employed. Collectively we have seen some people need to get different jobs, but they are remaining employed.
One of my friends with 30-ish SFRs did have one tenant give notice that he couldn't afford the rent and had to move in with family. After a quick paint and repair, it rented up with no problem at a higher rent.
Anecdotally, the few people that have had turns because of this admitted that the tenants were already paying late and not the greatest risks well before the pandemic.
@Sammi Liu i think your key here is visiting a few PMs and interviewing them thoroughly. You need to have someone that you trust but that also understands the market to keep your occupancy as high as possible.
As far as tenant issues, even the best PM cant prevent these. Tenants will be tenants and there and good and bad eggs no matter how much screening a PM does. Especially in the last year with COVID I think some people have been absolutely blown away by tenant behavior.
I would definitely put it under management unless your goal is to become experienced in out of state property management. It's not that hard but you would have to commit to being available to handle issues and lease ups between tenants. You can hire a PM just for lease ups but since that's the most expensive part, I would keep them for everything.
As far as vacancy rates in the Tampa, St Petersburg / Clearwater area, we seem to be dong well overall. For those of us that screen well, everybody seems to be paying on time and employed. Collectively we have seen some people need to get different jobs, but they are remaining employed.
One of my friends with 30-ish SFRs did have one tenant give notice that he couldn't afford the rent and had to move in with family. After a quick paint and repair, it rented up with no problem at a higher rent.
Anecdotally, the few people that have had turns because of this admitted that the tenants were already paying late and not the greatest risks well before the pandemic.
You could try rentometer for current rent rates or airdna for short term rental estimates, but for LTR your best info will be gained from talking to a PM. If they are not willing to share data... do you really want to work with them?
Hi @Sammi Liu Vacancy rates: there is no real data available industry wide for vacancy rates in the rental of Single Family Homes as most of the data we have comes from the Multi-Family market - so properties with 2+ units.
Your most accurate sense of the vacancy rates will come from calling and asking current Property Managers and even then it will be anecdotal and possibly biased by the desire to secure your property rather than accurate data you can use to assess your risk adequately but it gives you a 'feel'.
The best way to get a sense of the vacancy rate of Single Family Homes is to test the market. Place an ad and see what kind of response you get.
Additionally, search for a property for rent in the neighbourhood you are considering at the rental price you would like to command and see how many properties are available currently and how long they have been available. This will help you to take the temperature of the market.
I just did a quick search for you in Sarasota of 3 bed properties for rent in the past 3 months and there were only 3. I know for a fact that the Single Family Rental market here is starved of good SFHs rentals and they go like hot cakes when one comes on the market.
In terms of Property Management - I would agree with the other comments above - finding a good PM is probably necessary unless you want to establish your own team down here which people do do - it just depends on how much time you want to devote to it...
I am a property manager in Tampa, and to be honest the vacancy rate depends on the class of property. For our a class properties vacancies have been regular, for c class value add properties vacancies have been low.